Writing an Artists Statement Workshop

Today an hour and a half workshop with Jon Pigott encouraged us to start developing our artist statements.

Some of the key points I will highlight.

The statement does not need to be an accurate ‘true’ disrcription of the self, it is about the artist in relation to their work, and this changes over time. When writing it is important to remember that I will want to change my statement many times in all likeliness.

Jon described to us his core 4 points that an artist statement should cover:

What is it?

What is it for?

What are the values imbedded in it?

The materials and processes used.

Is important to consider the relationship between the material and the idea, but also to keep things short and snappy and to talk about ones self in the third person.

A good source of inspiration can be found online on galleries websites where artists statements are often posted. A good example is the Crafts Council Wales website. Art Quest .com also has a good how to write a good artists statement article.

So a good statement gathers up the values, materials, processes and a metaphoric or poetic sense of values too.

So to wrap up Jon ended by giving us a loose formula to follow and adapt for our own.

(Your name /collection) makes (things and adjectives), inspired by(….). Using (materials and processes) these (things) are for (who/where). This work is a metaphor for/a poetic exploration of/an embodiment of (….).

Jon has suggested that we print out a statement that and look at the work we have made, does the statement reflect the work? If not one has changed and the other must follow.